Upside down
by Rogue 559
Summary: The last chapters up...will the gang get out okay? Will they accept Lexa? Does anybody care? So many questions, so little time.
1. Chapter 1

This story is set after the end of season two. Emma's gone and the rest are understandably traumatized.  
  
All of the characters belong to the creators of Mutant X etc. blah blah.  
  
Please review and enjoy.  
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
'No Brennan. He thinks he can just walk back in here after going away for a whole month, well he's got another thing coming,' shouted Shalimar.  
  
'I'm standing right here,' said Adam.  
  
'No shit,' she replied, the venom practically dripping from her words.  
  
Jesse inwardly winced at the sound of Shalimar's harsh tone. He had never heard her sound quite so disgusted by any one person.  
  
Adam closed his eyes. He had been hoping that when he returned to Sanctuary they would all have gotten over his sudden disappearance. But this was no worse than he had expected, or deserved.  
  
After Emma had died he had felt a sudden desperate instinct growing inside of him. He had had to get away from all the reminders of her. He fully intended to come back to his family, his team but it had been a lot harder than any of them had thought. And as the days turned into weeks it had become so much harder to even consider facing them.  
  
Lexa was trying to get herself swallowed by the floor. She had known before they had gotten to Sanctuary that there was going to be an extreme amount of hostility. It was only natural for Mutant X to be pissed off at Adam. And their attitude towards him reflected on her since he had brought her here to be a part of the broken team, he had brought her here to fix the broken team.  
  
Shalimar stared into Adam's eyes. She had always relied on him, they all had and then he had disappeared, leaving the team without any way of contacting him. She understood that he was hurting and as usual going through his post-disaster guilt trip but so were they all. He didn't have a monopoly on sadness. She looked into his eyes and saw nothing of the father she used to know and love. She didn't recognize him at all.  
  
Brennan walked out of the room without so much as a backwards glance. He was curious as to who the new woman was; Shalimar hadn't really given Adam a chance to explain. But Shalimar was more important and after she had stormed off he wasn't sure what she would do. Shal was impetuous and she could never, even at the best of times be relied upon to be sensible.  
  
He heard her bedroom door slam shut behind her and as he reached it he heard a muffled 'go away'.  
  
'I'm not going anywhere Shalimar, until you talk to me,' he said, knowing it probably wouldn't do any good.  
  
'Well, then I hope you brought a book cos I can guarantee you're gonna be waiting a long time.'  
  
Brennan almost laughed out loud because he actually had brought a book. He had been reading when Adam had arrived and had shoved it in his back pocket. He slid down the wall next to Shalimar's door and pulled it out. He knew Shalimar wasn't even close to joking when she said he would be waiting a while.  
  
While thumbing through it to find his place he thought about how hard it was for everyone involved, especially Lexa. She had been thrown in at the deep end and he didn't have to be a psionic to know that Shalimar had intimidated the hell out of her. Lexa hadn't known Emma, she didn't want to fill those unfillable shoes. Shalimar was majorly over-reacting but he totally knew why. She had lost her best friend and she still felt that it was all her fault. It wasn't but he knew it would take a little more than him telling her to convince Shalimar of anything.  
  
***  
  
'Hi,' Jesse said to Lexa. She had been standing against one of the walls looking like she would rather be anywhere, doing anything other than being here.like being at a dentist and having a root canal. Jesse knew Shalimar well enough to know that she had been shouting at Adam, not Lexa. And Shalimar had every right to shout at him. He had gone away, he had left them for a whole month without a goodbye or even a note. And they hadn't known if he was coming back or not. If Shalimar hadn't have started shouting at him first Jesse would have been in there like a shot.  
  
But now Shalimar had stormed off, Brennan had gone after her to make sure she didn't break too much stuff and Adam had muttered an apology and slunk off to the lab leaving Jesse and Lexa behind. He couldn't just walk off too and leave her to stand there wishing herself somewhere else.  
  
Lexa looked up in suprise at the sound of Jesse's voice. It wasn't that him being there had shocked her it was just that he sounded vaguely pleasant, like he was atleast trying to make an effort to be nice.  
  
'Hi,' she replied.  
  
'I'm sorry about Shalimar,' Jesse said after a pause. He wasn't sure whether he should be apologizing for her. She would be pissed if she found out.  
  
Lexa looked into his blue eyes and felt a breath easing out of her lungs, one she didn't know she had been holding. She had been intensely nervous all day about the prospect of entering the hallowed halls of Sanctuary and meeting the brave heroes of new mutants everywhere. But for the first time she didn't feel awkward, she didn't feel embarrassed, and she was bordering on feeling comfortable in her surroundings.  
  
'Its understandable.'  
  
Jesse turned and walked off, Lexa following him. She looked around her at the building within a mountain. All her life it had been an impressive, inspirational myth, the idea that you could get away from the GSA. She had never believed it to be true. Until she was eighteen she had worked as an agent, not realizing that there was any other way. And then she had met Adam.  
  
He had, and it seemed cheesy everytime she said, it changed her life. He had placed her in the underground and she had disappeared off the GSA's radar.  
  
'She's been through a lot.' Jesse's voice interrupted her thoughts. 'We all have.'  
  
'I don't want to try and replace Emma. I'm here because Adam asked me to be here and.I owe him a lot,' she finished. It was true, she did. He had saved her twice now and she figured a good dose of gratitude was due. 


	2. Chapter 2

Just to make this clear, I haven't seen any of the episodes of season three yet so this is all coming from me. If it in anyway bears any relation to the real Mutant X could somebody let me know and I'll have to change my idea for the upcoming chapters.   
  
Thanks for the reviews. I hope you all enjoy this update. I'm having a little trouble formatting this stuff for the website. It won't let me do some things so I'm gonna try stuff and then yada yada. I'll try and sort it out anyway.  
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
Shalimar stared at the ceiling. It wasn't a particularly interesting ceiling, it was quite like any other, but that was the point. If she allowed her eyes to wander then they would probably find something that reminded her of Emma and then she'd get all kinds of angry with Adam and would start breaking things...and she really kinda liked the stuff in her room.   
  
She couldn't believe in the space of just over a month everything had gotten so screwed up. If her father turning up hadn't been horrible enough, the rest of the team getting involved in her issues to their cost was a hell of a lot worse.  
  
She had replayed that day over and over in her head. All of the things she could have done differently. She should have gone with her instincts and not Adam's opinion when he had told her to go meet her father.   
  
She hadn't seen Nicholas since she was twelve. She had loved her life before that point. School had been hard, it had been tough to control the overwhelming desire she had to flee, to run as far as she could. She hadn't fully understood what was happening to her. Looking back on those restless days now it was clear that it had been her mutation developing and that through not having some kind of output it had been welling up inside of her.  
  
And then her father had shipped her off without so much as a backward glance...that was something that had made her feel real secure.   
  
But she couldn't blame the whole scenario on him. It was a combination of things...Mason Eckhart, her father, Adam...and more importantly her. If she hadn't have gone off and gotten herself captured than none of this would have happened. Emma wouldn't be...  
  
She still couldn't bring herself to say it. It had been a month and she still wasn't over it in any way. Everybody made it seem like that was only to be expected, but Jesse was doing better than she was. He had accepted everything that had happened. She had just bottled it all up somewhere deep inside and refused to believe that it was true. Denial, she had always been good at that.   
  
She could still sense Brennan outside her door. She wanted to talk to him so desperately. How hard could it be. Brennan had been going through the same things she had. But they had grown apart, everyone had. She couldn't even talk to Jesse properly anymore. Everything was just so messed up and she didn't have a clue how to make anything right.   
  
***  
  
Adam watched through the door of the lab as Jesse and Lexa walked deeper into the heart of Sanctuary. He had hoped that Jesse wouldn't be as hostile towards her as he knew Shalimar and Brennan would. They wouldn't accept that the team needed an extra member so soon after Emma's departure and he couldn't really expect them to.   
  
He could still hear Shalimar's words echoing in his ears. She had always been the protective one, the strong one. When everyone else had fallen by the wayside he had always known that Shalimar would be there, standing tall. He only wished he could say the same for himself.   
  
The beeping aroused Adam from his thoughts. It had been a while since he had been around his computers but it was like the action was instinctive. His hand reached over to the keypad and he managed to find his way to the safehouse link. A face appeared on the screen in front of him. She was pale, with dark blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She looked at him questioningly.  
  
'Can I speak to Jesse please?' she asked.   
  
'Is it anything I can help with?' Adam asked. He realized, too late that he sounded like Jesse's secretary.   
  
'Um, no thanks. I just need to speak to someone from Mutant X.'  
  
'I'll take it from here Adam,' said Jesse from the doorway. Rebecca had contacted the team two weeks ago and asked for them to place her in the underground. She had no idea who Adam was and she scared pretty easily. Jesse figured it was definitely best for Adam to leave it to him.  
  
Adam vacated the seat and walked quietly over to the door where Lexa was leaning against the frame. He felt so completely worthless. He had known that going away would change things between him and the team. But he hadn't seen how far reaching the consequences of his selfish actions would be. He had thought it was for the best. He had needed time to get over Emma just like they all had. But he had understood that the team could not stop functioning because Emma was no longer with them. And he had believed himself to be the only one with enough insight to see it that way. He had figured that they would all be too distraught to do anything. He hadn't expected that they would carry on. Maybe they weren't over Emma but the team was still working efficiently, they were still helping new mutants. He had underestimated all of them.  
  
***  
  
Brennan looked up as he heard the door slide open. He had lost track of time by successfully becoming absorbed in his book. It wasn't all that interesting but in his desire to step out of reality and into a different world he had become engrossed.   
  
He looked up at Shalimar. Her complexion was pale and her eyes were distant, like she was looking through everything. She had been like that ever since Emma's death and the only relapse had been when she was shouting at Adam. It was like she wasn't feeling any kind of emotion, not even grief. He knew it wasn't good for her, to be bottling it all up inside but he didn't know how to pry what she was feeling out of her. It was ironic that the one time Emma was really needed to heal people telempathically she was the one causing all the pain.   
  
Shalimar looked over at him as he got up. She had barely noticed that he was there. That was the way she was now. She didn't notice things until they were made obvious. It went against her feral abilities completely but it was like she was living in a different reality to everyone else.   
  
And she had expected him to have left. She had always relied on Brennan but he had never been the one she would turn to when she was vulnerable unless she could help it. That role was usually given to Adam. . . or Emma.   
  
'I don't want to talk,' she said clearly as he opened his mouth to speak. She knew he wanted to be there for her but right at that moment in time there was nothing he could do. 


	3. Chapter 3

Glad to hear that those of you who reviewed liked the last chapter. As of this moment Mutant X is not on in Britain so I have no idea how similar, if at all to the real show this is. If people could keep me updated about whether I'm getting too close to reality that would be much appreciated.   
  
I also wouldn't mind knowing when Mutant X is coming back to Sky One. If anyone knows those dates or where I could find them that would be really great.   
  
I hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks for reviewing, please continue yada yada.  
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
'Who was it?' Shalimar asked as she walked into the lab, conveniently ignoring Adam and Lexa's presence. She had the feeling that if she so much as brushed past either of them she would go off on one.   
  
'Rebecca,' replied Jesse. 'She was just checking in like we told her to...' He faded out and both Shalimar's and Brennan's brows furrowed.   
  
'What else?' Brennan asked.  
  
'It wasn't anything she said. In fact its more about what she didn't say. She just sounded freaked.'  
  
Brennan thought back to when they had first met Rebecca. She had been freaked back then as well but, as she had gotten to know the team and had realized that they just wanted to help her she had relaxed and opened up. She was an elemental but she was young and didn't know how to control it all that well. That was probably why he had gotten along with her so well. He could still remember a time when he couldn't control his own abilities.   
  
'You think we should go check it out?' he asked.   
  
Shalimar looked up at Brennan. She would have smiled at his over-protectiveness if she hadn't been so aware of Adam and Lexa. He was still that protective over her, but instead of it being annoying like it had been when he had first joined the team, it was comforting that he was watching her back.   
  
I doubt it will take all of us,' answered Jesse. He didn't want to leave Shalimar behind in Sanctuary with only Lexa and Adam for company but he had some things he needed to do in the safehouse and Rebecca trusted Brennan so much more than the rest of them. He met her gaze across the room and saw her eyebrows raise, warning him to steer well away from that particular thought.   
  
Brennan looked between the two of them and much as he didn't want to leave Shalimar behind he had to admit that maybe it would be a good idea to give her some time alone with Adam and Lexa.  
  
'Hey Jess, you wanna get the Helix ready and I'll be out in a little bit. Shalimar, you can keep an eye on the computers, scan for any incoming calls.' He walked out of the room quickly, wanting to avoid the row he knew Shalimar would start with him.   
  
He heard the click of her heels following him swiftly down the hall.  
  
'What the hell do you think you're doing?' she asked angrily.  
  
Brennan stopped in his tracks and turned to face the angry feral.  
  
'Somebody needs to be here, and since its Jesse's turn to re-stock the safehouse I figured it was only fair if it was you.'  
  
'Fair on who, exactly?'  
  
Brennan breathed deeply. He had so not wanted to have this particular argument right at that moment. 'Maybe you should give him a chance...'  
  
'Why? Unless you had forgotten he left us. He walked away without so much as a backward glance...'  
  
'Maybe he had good reason to.'  
  
They were both shouting at each other and Jesse, who had been planning on walking down the hall to get to his room, quickly turned around and retraced his footsteps figuring it was best to leave them to it.  
  
'What good reason could there possibly have been for him leaving?'  
  
'Why don't you ask your real father.' As soon as the words left his mouth he wanted to drag them back in. He closed his lids and heard sound rushing through his ears. He hadn't meant to say that and he didn't think it was possible to regret anything more than he did that one sentence. When he opened his eyes she was gone.   
  
***  
  
Shalimar slammed her bedroom door and then kicked it for good measure. She knew she was acting like a spoilt brat but she couldn't stand that everyone was acting like nothing had happened, everyone was pretending that they were all part of one big family. She couldn't stand it. Granted she hadn't gotten over recent events but that was different to making out those events never happened.   
  
She stomped over to her bed and dropped down onto it. She couldn't believe Brennan had said that to her. It was true, she would give that to him. Her father knew all about walking away, he could have written a book about leaving people, responsibilities behind. But she was still shocked that Brennan had brought it up in an argument.   
  
It had been the second full on argument she had had in one day. That had to be some sort of record. But then she hadn't said anything other than small talk for the past month, she figured she was probably due some serious shouting.   
  
Shalimar knew she would have to leave the room sometime. Brennan had been right when he had said somebody had to keep an eye on the computers. They had been non-stop searching for Mason Eckhart and the GSA for some time. But the man and the organization had disappeared from Mutant X's radar. They couldn't find anything on them. And that was probably more worrying than anything.   
  
***  
  
The door shut behind them and they walked along the gangway to the stairs. Their footsteps echoed around them. The safehouse looked to be pretty uninhabited. There were a couple of dirty plates and cups in the sink but other than that, the place was empty.   
  
'I'm gonna take a look around for Rebecca,' Brennan said. Jesse nodded and made his way down the stairs to the kitchen.  
  
Brennan made his way down the stairs after Jesse but he turned back on himself and walked under the gangway to see if there was any sign of life. It was weird. If Rebecca had been anxious about something, chances were she wouldn't have left the safehouse. She had spent the last couple of years running from the GSA. When they had shut down due to Ashlocke she had found herself an apartment and a job and a whole new life. But the GSA had come back and they had found her. And then she had ended up on the streets. That was when she had contacted Mutant X. After all the practice she had gained over the years she was an expert at keeping a low profile.   
  
Brennan could hear Jesse opening and closing cupboard doors but nothing else. He would never have described the safehouses as being the place to party but this was ridiculous. There was usually someone in there.   
  
He heard the glass shatter behind him and turned towards the kitchen to see what Jesse was doing when a fist came sailing towards him. Brennan didn't have a chance to react and he staggered backwards, feeling the blood rush out of his nose. He was met with a kick to the stomach and as the floor came sailing towards him everything went black. 


	4. Chapter 4

This chapters not very long. I haven't had an opportunity to do much writing lately so this is the best I could come up with. I'll be getting to the action within the next couple of chapters so if its going too slow don't worry, it will quicken up soon.  
  
Thanks for all the reviews. If anyone is reviewing this chapter and they have some clue as to when Mutant X is coming back to Sky One that information would be appreciated so much. I promise to love you forever (if you don't want my undying love then you'll have to be happy in the knowledge that if I knew your address or had any money I would send you a cookie).  
  
Hope you all enjoy...Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
Shalimar walked into the main area of Sanctuary. She didn't know what to do about the whole Brennan thing. She wanted to make up with him, of course she did but he had said things that she couldn't just forgive. And her stubborn nature wouldn't allow herself to be the first to give in.   
  
The part that was killing her was that he was right. He had been right about everything that they had argued over. Her father had left her, and she probably should give Adam another chance. But it was so much easier saying it all than actually doing it.   
  
She remembered when she had first met Adam. She had been lost, confused, scared of everything and everyone including herself and what she was rapidly becoming. She had been living on the streets after making a hurried exit from the mental asylum her father had placed her in. She had found her way into a scummy motel late at night and a couple of hours later Adam had turned up, telling her that he was one of the good huys and that he just wanted to help her. Shalimar didn't know why she had believed him, but she had. Maybe it had been his eyes. They were warm and comforting and honest. She had been living without the kindness of others for so long that she hadn't really known what to make of his behaviour. Or maybe it was that he had offered her the first decent meal she had had in months.   
  
Being a part of Mutant X, working with Adam had given her a new sense of purpose in life. She was finally doing something that made her feel secure in her own skin.   
  
Adam leaving had hit her harder than the others. Jesse may have been just as dependent on Adam and his fatherlike presence but it was different. He had led a hard life but he had always had someone there to help him out. And Brennan was so independent it sometimes felt like he didn't require anybody else in his life at all. Shalimar had always seen herself as being more like the latter than the former. She hadn't even realized that she needed Adam as much as she did until he wasn't there anymore.   
  
But he had broken whatever trust she had with him and now he had brought Lexa back with him. Shalimar was sure that she was a lovely person, she was sure that Lexa would be a great shopping partner but she was replacing Emma, no matter what anyone said to the contrary.   
  
Shalimar turned quickly as she heard footsteps behind her. She looked at Lexa. She hadn't really done so before, having been more concerned with the sudden presence of Adam. Lexa was pretty. She was the same height and build as Emma, had long dark hair and cat-like eyes. She seemed nervous and Shalimar couldn't really blame her. She knew she was intimidating at the best of times to people that didn't know her. But wasn't that the whole reason why she was feeling so much animosity towards Lexa? Lexa knew nothing about Shalimar or Jesse or Brennan, and more importantly nothing about what made them such a strong family. Lexa couldn't understand the effect that losing Emma had had on them. And Shalimar knew she couldn't expect her to. But she wasn't ready to admit that.   
  
'I'm sorry,' Lexa managed to get out before she turned to leave. She didn't want to face Shalimar just yet. And if she was going to face the feral she was going to have someone there to help her out. She was scared of everything that was going on around her. She had spent so long trying to stay away from any kind of trouble and now she was being asked by Adam, the one guy she couldn't refuse anything of to fight with Mutant X. She had no idea when her world had become so confused but it had.   
  
'Why?'  
  
Lexa stopped in her tracks. 'What?'  
  
Shalimar breathed deeply. She didn't have a huge amount of patience, especially not with Lexa. 'Why are you sorry?' she said as if she were speaking to a five year old who was having trouble with 2 + 2.   
  
'I don't know,' replied Lexa. 'I guess I'm sorry for whatever it is that you find so repulsive about me.'  
  
Shalimar looked at her. She knew what Lexa was talking about but she wasn't prepared to acknowledge that she was right. 'And why would you think something like that?'   
  
A laugh escaped from Lexa's lips. She looked up at Shalimar in disbelief. 'You seriously don't think that you're being a bitch, do you?'  
  
'No, I know I'm being a bitch. I just can't believe that you're actually not getting why.' Shalimar's voice was gradually rising in volume. She didn't want Lexa there, why couldn't she understand that?  
  
'If you want me to leave just say so.'  
  
'I want you to leave,' Shalimar said, without hesitation.   
  
Adam had been standing round the corner from where the preparation to a huge argument was taking place. He hadn't wanted to step in, he didn't want to make it look like he was trying to be the leader of Mutant X all over again. And if this was the only way that Shalimar and Lexa were going to break the ice, no matter how damaging to both of them he had to see how that would work out. But he couldn't wait any longer. He stepped out from around the corner and walked forward. 'Shalimar,' he called out.  
  
'You know, I only came here to help,' shouted Lexa. She had been attempting politeness and civility long enough. If Shalimar wanted a fight she was gonna get one.  
  
'We don't need your help,' Shalimar yelled back.  
  
'Shalimar!'  
  
They both turned to look at Adam. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes held an undisguised urgency.   
  
'What?' Shalimar bit out. She couldn't believe he was shouting at her. He had only been in Sanctuary five minutes and he was already trying to play follow the leader.   
  
'Jesse's and Brennan's com-links are off line.' 


	5. Chapter 5

This will be the last update for a week, I'm going on holiday so won't be able to get to a computer anytime.   
  
Thanks for the reviews. Please review more.   
  
I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I know I promised you all action but I realized that there was something that needed to be told first.   
  
Have a nice day.   
  
***  
  
Shalimar stalked through the doorway towards the computer. She couldn't believe this was happening. After losing Emma she couldn't lose Brennan and Jesse as well. Without even sitting down at the computer she looked at the screen, making sure that Adam was right. She practically ran towards the phone, hoping against all of her instincts that Brennan and Jesse had both simultaneously taken their com-links off.   
  
Lexa ran in to find Shalimar frantically pressing the numbers on a mobile phone. She was struggling and couldn't seem to coordinate her hands with what her brain wanted to do. Lexa walked towards her as the phone went flying out of Shalimar's grasp. She bent down to pick it up but stopped with her hand mere inches away.   
  
'Back off,' Shalimar growled. She had already pointed out that neither she nor her friends needed Lexa's help. She still didn't understand why Lexa wouldn't accept what was, in Shalimar's mind atleast a fact.   
  
She grabbed the phone and this time managed to punch the number of Brennan's mobile into it. The phone was turned off and she was put straight through to the answer machine. She slammed her hand on the table and started tapping Jesse's number in instantly. There was ringing and Shalimar held her breath before puling the phone away from her ear. Her eyes glowed as she listened to the world around her.   
  
Lexa's eyes grew wide as she saw Shalimar's feral state. She had never really seen a feral before, not one in action atleast. In fact she didn't really know a whole lot about other new mutants. She had spent so long trying to avoid having contact with anyone who knew anything about who she really was that she had lost touch with the new mutant world.   
  
Shalimar shoved past her and ran down the hallway. She slid open Jesse's bedroom door and looked towards his bedside table. Her heart sank within her chest and tears sprang to her eyes. She switched her phone off and dropped it onto the bed. She had been determined ever since the explosion to not cry. She knew that she would never truly get over it all if she didn't allow herself the time to mourn, but she didn't want to seem weak. She had too many people relying on her to be strong, to be this stable rock that they could depend on. She was always the one who was cool and calm in a crisis.   
  
She blinked away the tears and turned, only to find Lexa and Adam standing in the doorway.   
  
'What do you want to do?' Adam asked.   
  
After a minutes pause she replied. 'I wanna get my friends back.'  
  
***  
  
Jesse woke suddenly with a gasp. His head was pounding and his mouth was dry. There was a tingling sensation running along his back from the chair he was sitting in and had presumably been sitting in for quite some time. He slowly leant his head against the back of the metal chair and took in his surroundings. There was a glass wall in front of him and one to his left. To his right was a cabinet with shelves full of test tubes and cruel looking equipment.   
  
Once Jesse was sure he had gathered enough strength, he breathed in deeply. He felt his body begin to phase out but something was wrong. A wave of pain washed over him and he leant over in agony. He sucked in deep draughts of air until the pain had subsided.   
  
There was one good thing about the anguish he had just gone through. He now knew exactly where he was. Genomex was the only place where subdermal governors were a part of everyday procedure. He had always hated them and the pods. They had felt like too much of a restriction and he had hated his complete loss of liberty everytime he was subjected to that kind of treatment. He hadn't felt the kind of pain that a governor brought in years though, and hadn't been prepared. It took him a few minutes to get his breathing back under control, and stop his heart from beating its way out of his chest.   
  
The team had lost track of Genomex after the explosion. They had been monitoring the situation for the past month but there had been next to no activity and every external problem had been designated a spot on the back burner while they all tried to get over everything that had happened. They had to have missed something or else Genomex was operating on different channels to the usual ones.   
  
Jesse looked down at his ring finger, the one where his com-link could normally be found. It was gone and there was a pale band of skin on his tanned hand. He had guessed that Genomex would have done that much.   
  
He wondered how Shalimar was getting on with Adam and Lexa. She was sensitive, more so than ever to intruders in her home. It wasn't necessarily a feral thing, though he figured that that obviously had some part to play. It was really just a Shalimar thing. She was protective of the people that she loved. Losing Emma had hit her where it hurt. She hadn't been able to protect her from the thing that killed her. And Jesse knew that until she got over her own guilt she wouldn't ever be able to move on.   
  
***  
  
'Mr. Mulwray, so nice to see that you have woken up in time to entertain your guests.'  
  
Brennan looked up at the source of the voice. He had known where he was from the first moment of consciousness; Genomex was a place that stayed in your system for quite some time. Plus he had been through enough simulations to know what it looked like. He was unhappy to see that everything seemed to be back to working order after Gabriel's stay there.   
  
'Mr. Mulwray,' the voice of Mason Eckhart snapped, displeased that he wasn't gaining 100% of Brennan's attention.   
  
Brennan raised his eyebrows instantly. He loved pissing the bad guys off, especially Eckhart. It wasn't always such a good idea but it provided him with some fun before whatever it was that was coming came.   
  
The corners of Mason's mouth lifted. He didn't smile often but he did so love when he had the upper hand, particularly when it was Mutant X who ended up being the underdogs. And now he had two of them. If they didn't know where the man he was looking for, and had been looking for for the past month was, then he could use them as bargaining chips.  
  
'I wanted to come here personally to ask you a question before I have my people torture it out of you,' he said, side-stepping out of the way to give Brennan an excellent view of the equipment that was going to be used to do just that.   
  
'And here I was thinking that you didn't care,' Brennan drawled back.   
  
Eckhart shot Brennan a steely glare as he continued to talk. 'I want to know the location of a man.'  
  
'Wow, I never pictured you as gay,' Brennan said. Insulting Eckhart was way too easy. Atleast Shalimar put up a real fight when they bantered.   
  
'I'm looking for Nicholas Fox.' As soon as the words left his mouth he saw the change in his captive's demeanor. All the bravado, the confidence was gone. Suddenly he could see the pain in Brennan's eyes.  
  
Brennan hated that Eckhart should be the one to uncover his weakness. It wasn't just what Nicholas had led the team into, it was what he had done to Shalimar. That was why she still blamed herself for Emma's death. He was her father, if anyone should have been able to stop him, to know what he was doing it should have been her. She was wrong of course but who was he to get something that momentous into Shalimar's head.   
  
'I don't know, and I don't care,' replied Brennan, once again putting up his usually impenetrable exterior.   
  
'Come now, Mr. Mulwray. This is the father of one of your teammates we're talking about. Surely you know something about where he's hiding out.'  
  
Brennan looked Eckhart straight in the eye. No matter what Eckhart wanted to believe Brennan didn't actually know anything about Nicholas Fox. After the collapse of the building Mutant X had been too concerned with the disappearance of Adam and the obvious death of Emma. They hadn't given much thought to where Shalimar's dad had gone, or atleast Brennan hadn't. He wasn't so sure about Shalimar though. She went off hunting on her own so much, he had barely seen her in the past month. Where she had been going every night had remained a mystery to both him and Jesse. The problem was that Eckhart would never believe him. Brennan didn't like the look of the objects on the table that he had seen minutes before, but he really didn't have anything to say. 


	6. Chapter 6

Well I'm back. My holiday was fabulous just in case any of you cared. And this is the next chapter. Its not very actioney but I'm getting to that. This is really just different characters thoughts and the next chapter will be about finding and helping Brennan and Jesse.   
  
Thanks for the reviews and please give me more.  
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***  
  
'What can we do?' Adam asked.   
  
Shalimar looked around her blindly. She had no idea what to do. She had been faced with these kind of situations a million times but had never had to work out everything by herself. It was like she was lost in the middle of this vast ocean and all around her was water and no matter how hard she looked she couldn't see anybody who could aid her in some way, anybody who could help her.   
  
'Lexa, would you give us a minute?'   
  
She nodded assent and walked out of the room. She wanted to help Shalimar find Brennan and Jesse. She wanted to be able to do something if only for purely selfish ends. She had finally found some people who could accept her and maybe, given enough time they could grow to be her friends. She had never had anybody who was willing to look out for her in her life. She had missed that kind of closeness without even realizing it. She didn't want to lose that now she was so close.   
  
'Look, Adam, I really don't think that this is the right time to talk about our...'  
  
'Shalimar,' he interrupted. She looked up at him and then sighed, allowing him the opportunity to talk.  
  
'I'm sorry that I left you. I'm sorry that I left all of you. I was selfish, I thought that what I was doing was the right thing to do. I was wrong. I'm not asking you to forgive me, but right now, you are technically only a team of one.'  
  
She felt the tears returning and closing her eyes felt them running streams down her face.   
  
'Both myself and Lexa want to help you. After we get back Jesse and Brennan then you can face the issue of forgiving me or not, but right now, we don't have time for hostility.'  
  
She brushed at the wetness of her face with the back of her hand and looked up at Adam.   
  
'You think its the GSA?' she asked.   
  
'I don't know. Eckhart's probably had a chance to recover from the explosion, get his company back on track.'  
  
'So we check out any activity from the GSA in the past week. I wanna find out where they have been, what they've been doing and with whom,' she said decisively.   
  
Adam nodded before turning and leaving the room. Shalimar sat down on the bed behind her, breathing deeply. She had done it. She had talked to Adam without wanting to rip his head off of his shoulders. Brennan and Jesse would be so proud. Now she just had to get them back so she could tell them.   
  
***  
  
'I don't know.'  
  
'Come now Mr. Kilmartin. You are like a brother to Miss Fox. Surely you, of all people know where her father is hiding out.'  
  
'Like I've been telling you, I haven't heard from him since the explosion at Naxcon and neither has Shalimar.'   
  
Eckhart had been questioning him for fifteen minutes and Jesse still didn't know quite what Eckhart was talking about. As far as he knew Nicholas had either been killed in the explosion or he had run off, scared of the consequences of his actions. And Jesse honestly didn't care. He knew Shalimar was to some extent broken up about the loss of so many people from her life but Jesse blamed him and Eckhart for everything that had happened then and since. He couldn't, even for Shalimar's sake fake any kind of sympathy for Nicholas Fox's situation, and so far she hadn't asked him to.   
  
'Are you sure?' Eckhart drawled. He was getting bored of questioning the freaks of Mutant X. It had seemed like such an exciting possibility, the tantalizing idea that if they didn't tell him what he wanted to know he could torture them. But it was quickly becoming clear to him that Kilmartin and Mulwray knew nothing. He hadn't been sure when he had captured them that they would. After all, Fox had screwed them over as much as anybody. And they had lost someone close to their hearts. He could still torture them though. It didn't have the same appeal but it might make him feel that little bit better.   
  
***  
  
Brennan's eyes flickered. His tongue swept over his chapped lips and he could taste the blood at the corner of his mouth. He had forgotten how painful a subdermal governor was when activated. He definitely hadn't missed that sensation. The pain would start off in his back and then shoot like lightning up and down until he couldn't think about anything, not even the agony. His ears were still buzzing and his vision still blurry but he was determined to get out of there. He had no idea where Jesse was but he was pretty sure that by now he would be in much the same state as Brennan.   
  
He thought back to the conversation, if that was what it could be called that he had had with Eckhart. When Nicholas Fox had shown up out of the blue Brennan had seen Shalimar react in a way she had never done before. She was always ready for a fight, she always seemed to relish the moments when she got to really cut lose and kick ass. But she had repressed into herself. Shalimar had run away from her problems if only for a short while. He had never known her to do something like that and it had suprised him. Brennan knew that she had a vulnerable side but he had never known her to display it so obviously before. Shalimar had always been so confident, so outspoken but it was like she had run out of things to say when her father was mentioned. Brennan was not privy to any real details about her past. He knew how Adam had found her and he knew pretty much everything that had happened since that moment. But before that was a blank page, one that Shalimar had yet to make any impression on.   
  
Brennan had no idea if Shalimar would have talked to Nicholas. He wouldn't have been suprised if Shalimar had refused to ever talk to her father again. But Brennan also wouldn't have been too shocked if she had already met up with him and had a coffee. She had missed out on a father for so many years that he wouldn't blame her for wanting to rekindle some kind of relationship.   
  
He heard a faint shout behind him and turned to find the source. He saw the back of a chair and the sandy blonde head of Jesse over the top of it. Eckhart was standing in front of the chair and Brennan could see the remote control of the subdermal governor in his hand. Without even thinking about it Brennan drew a tesla coil into his hand and instantly felt the jolts of pain rush through his body. His hand fell limp and he leant back against his own chair, knowing that he was helpless. 


	7. Chapter 7

I know I keep on promising you people action but there's so much preparation to do. The rescue thing will be in the next chapter...I really do promise this time round.   
  
Thanks you for all the reviews, I'm extremely happy that you're all enjoying...or atleast the people that reviewed are and if you don't review you have no right to be pissed when you don't get what you want. And any suggestions for an ending would be appreciated. I think I know what I'm gonna do but happy or sad etc. etc. would be nice.  
  
Have a nice day.  
  
***   
  
Shalimar looked down at the ground below. She was flying in the Helix to the safehouse that Brennan and Jesse had been taken from. Adam was researching the GSA. So far he had found only minor snippets of information, nothing that could tell them where the two members of Mutant X were being held. He had also been searching for Rebecca. She was the one who had asked for the help of Mutant X. Shalimar figured that she had either been threatened and was now in a GSA holding cell with a subdermal governor in the back of her neck and a pod with her name on it or she had aided the GSA voluntarily and was strolling round happy as Larry. Either way Shalimar was gonna find her.   
  
The computer in front of her beeped and as she pushed a button Adam's face appeared.   
  
'I found the records of Safehouse 5. Rebecca was there at the same time as four GSAgents.'   
  
'That still doesn't help me as far as working out whether she was a help or a hindrance to them Adam,' Shalimar replied.  
  
'Yes but you haven't heard the full story. Right after the transmission a burst of power is shown coming from the building. And then five people left pretty quickly.'  
  
'So she was forced to send the message and then preceded to get the hell out of there.'  
  
'Seems like it. And then the GSAgents must have come back just in time to pick up Brennan and Jesse.'  
  
Shalimar breathed deeply. They were getting closer to finding their lost teammates.  
  
'Are you playing nice with Lexa?' Adam asked playfully.  
  
Shalimar shot him a dirty look as her mind was jolted back to the woman sitting in the chair behind her, staring through the small window at the ground below her.   
  
'I'm playing just fine with her,' she replied. She still didn't get why Lexa had had to come with her when she would have surely been more use back at Sanctuary.   
  
'Shalimar, I'm not asking that you be best friends with her, I don't have that right. But please just try and be civil,' Adam pleaded.   
  
'I'll let you know as soon as we find something,' she replied before breaking the link between her and him. She hated being told what to do, always had, but she was more annoyed because she knew he was right. And that was happening way too much lately for her own comfort. She steered the invisible Helix down towards the roof of the safehouse and landed smoothly. She turned around and saw Lexa watching her.  
  
'What?' she asked coldly.   
  
'Nothing,' Lexa replied as she stood up and pulled her jacket on.   
  
Shalimar rolled her eyes and opened the doors. There was no way she could even be civil to a woman that she couldn't even hope to figure out.   
  
Lexa's eyes flicked across to where Shalimar was standing with her back to her and she smirked. Adam had told her so many times how stubborn the feral could be but she hadn't fully believed him...before she had met Shalimar. She had no idea how Adam expected her to be able to get along with her but it seemed pretty impossible.  
  
***  
  
'Wow.'  
  
'What?'  
  
'This place is amazing,' Lexa replied as she looked around her at the safehouse. She had seen one of Adam's safehouses when he had first gotten her out off Genomex but since then she hadn't been near one. And they had changed. It wasn't quite as impressive as Sanctuary but she was still thoroughly dazzled.  
  
Shalimar looked at Lexa like she was crazy before vaulting over the gangway railing onto the floor below. She was desperate in her need for some kind of information and even stairs seemed like a waste of time.  
  
Lexa's mouth hung open as she watched. She didn't know why she was so suprised at Shalimar's abilities. Having worked for Genomex she had heard all about what ferals could do but seeing one in action was a different matter entirely.   
  
Shalimar's eyes glowed orange and she walked further into the room. She looked into the kitchen as she walked past and saw broken glass on the floor. She walked in further and could hear the crunching under her feet but there was no other sign of life.   
  
She walked back out into the main room, straight past Lexa. Shalimar's eyes scanned the area quickly before coming to alight on blood on the floor. She rushed over and crouched down next to it. She sighed and looked away. It wasn't that she couldn't stand the site of blood, she just knew what it signaled for Brennan and Jesse. As she looked away she noticed an ID card. She picked it up and looked at all the details. It had presumably been dropped by a GSAgent but all it had on it was a picture, an 8 digit number and a black strip.   
  
'Adam.'  
  
There was a few seconds pause before he replied.  
  
'I've found an ID card but Genomex has gotten all discreet so there's nothing on it that tells us anything.'  
  
'Alright. Get back here quickly so I can take a look at the card. Maybe there's some way of linking it to a location.'  
  
'Lexa, we're going.'  
  
She looked up from where she had been standing and saw Shalimar running up the stairs. She followed. She hadn't heard what Shalimar had been saying to Adam but she had gotten the gist of it from Shalimar's body language. She was not happy with the result of their search.   
  
***  
  
'Have you found anything?' Shalimar asked, the urgency and desperation evident in her voice.   
  
'No. Not since the last time you asked which was exactly two minutes ago,' Adam replied, irritation evident in his.   
  
She stalked out of the lab, leaving Adam to get on with his work and slammed straight into Lexa. The two rebounded and Shalimar muttered a distracted apology before carrying on.   
  
Lexa leant against the smooth wall and began to wonder, not for the first time what she was doing there. She wasn't wanted, that much she knew. But why had she been so eager to get involved in the first place. When Adam had asked her to fill in at Mutant X she had jumped at the opportunity, but she had no idea why. There was the whole family issue. She had never had one, atleast not one that she cared to remember. Genomex had been her first real home and she was ashamed that that had ever been her state of mind. But why she was putting up with so much crap from Shalimar she had no idea. She could have walked out at anytime but she hadn't. Maybe she felt sorry for Shalimar. After everything she had been through didn't she deserve a break. But just because Shalimar was hard done by didn't mean that she had the right to take it all out on her.   
  
Lexa walked towards the sound of water, needing something to calm her down. She sat down next to the secluded pool and tucked her legs underneath her body. She made a firm decision to give Shalimar the benefit of the doubt. The feral had been through so much recently Lexa couldn't even imagine the pain. So, she was going to let it all slide, atleast until she could get out of there and back to her old life at which point she might consider giving Shalimar a piece of her mind.   
  
She looked up at the window and saw the full moon shining through. She followed the rays down towards the waters surface. She held out her hand and watched as they slowly shimmered out of their original shapes and became starlike objects. They sparkled and glowed in the dark environment.  
  
'Very pretty.'  
  
She turned her head sharply and looked in to Shalimar's eyes.   
  
'Thanks,' she replied cautiously.  
  
'I just thought I should apologize for my behaviour earlier. I'm going through some extreme...shit. I just thought I should let you know that its not you...it really is me. You've come at the wrong time.'  
  
'When would have been a good time?'  
  
'I don't think there would have been one,' Shalimar answered after a pause.  
  
  
  
Lexa looked back down at the water, down at the rays of ghostly light emitted by the moon and saw they had changed again back to their original shimmers.   
  
'Shalimar.'  
  
They both turned and saw Adam's head appearing through the doorway of the lab. They both stood and ran towards him, wondering what he had found.  
  
'What have you got?'  
  
'A group of buildings in the middle of town. The strip, once I hacked into it gives the location of Eckhart's new premises and he's clearly decided to get a little closer to the action this time round.'  
  
'So, what are we waiting for? Lets go,' Shalimar said.  
  
'No,' Adam replied. 'We can't just bust in there. We need to atleast have a plan.'  
  
Shalimar stared at him, open-mouthed. As per usual he was being cautious but this was Brennan's and Jesse's lives they were talking about.   
  
'And what's your big plan then?' she replied angrily.  
  
  
  
'We send Lexa in.'  
  
'What?' the two women replied simultaneously. They looked at each other both wondering what the hell Adam was thinking?  
  
'Shalimar, it makes sense. The GSA will be watching out for you. They will know that you will be making some sort of move to get back Brennan and Jesse and they'll be prepared. They have no idea that Lexa is working with Mutant X. And plus if this is going to be successful you have to be in the Helix ready to get them all out of there.'  
  
'Adam, you cannot be serious. Lexa has not been trained like I have. If she's discovered what's she gonna do?'  
  
'I can do plenty,' Lexa retorted, offended that Shalimar was underestimating her.  
  
'Yeah, you can distort moon beams, real helpful,' Shalimar fired back.  
  
'Hey, hey!' Adam said, trying to get the focus of the pair back onto what was important. When he had got it he carried on. 'If Lexa fails then you can go in there and do your thing.'  
  
She looked into his brown eyes and saw the old Adam, the one who never backed down when he had come up with a plan, the one who always took charge when everyone else was floundering.   
  
'I can't lose them,' she said calmly.  
  
'I know,' he replied.  
  
***  
  
'The entrance is here,' Adam said, pointing at the computer screen. 'And Shalimar will land here. Lexa, you should probably go in one of the cars because I'm not sure how far reaching their security cameras are.'  
  
'And all I have to do is swipe the card and I'm in. There's no fingerprint things or anything.'  
  
'Can you tell she's never done this before?' Shalimar said with a smirk.  
  
'Yes, I'm sure,' Adam said with a reassuring smile at Lexa and raised eyebrows at Shalimar. 'You'll go in and along this corridor,' he continued, indicating areas of the computer screen. 'Brennan and Jesse are being held here.'  
  
Lexa watched as Adam's index finger moved across the screen and came to a stop. She was as nervous as she had ever been but was determined to get through this mission. She had a whole lot of life to live yet and she was not going back into a Genomex building just to get stuck there. Shalimar's somewhat good natured teasing was not gonna make her back down...and she kind of guessed that that was the point.   
  
'Shalimar, you'll keep an eye on Lexa and go in as soon as something goes wrong.'  
  
'Okay. What time are we going in?'  
  
'Its nine pm now. We'll go in 45 minutes to get there in an hour. For now, I suggest you go and get some rest.'  
  
Adam turned back to the computer. He wanted to check all the details again, just to make sure that they were all correct. His intention was to keep an eye on all the feed from the security cameras. He would run a loop so that when Brennan, Jesse and Lexa were leaving none of the security team would know.   
  
Shalimar walked out of the lab. She wasn't nervous but she really wished that someone was there to talk to her. Before going out on a mission there had always been a sense of excitement, atleast for her and that had been created by the people around her. Emma would laugh with her as they got ready, Brennan would always be ready to have a last minute sparring session with her and Jesse would check everything over with Adam so they could see everything from every angle. But she could not afford to fail this time round. She could not lose two more friends.   
  
Lexa went straight to her bag. It had been left by the entrance to Sanctuary when she had turned up with Adam and she had forgotten it since, being a little too preoccupied with other things. She unzipped the front pocket and, using her abilities manipulated the overhead lights so they shone in. Having found what she was looking for she slipped the chain round her neck and did up the clasp. She glanced down at the silver cross. She wasn't religious, never really had been but there was something about crosses that made her feel more secure. Maybe it was the idea that there was someone watching over her, making sure that she was okay.   
  
She stood up and breathed deeply before walking towards the water, the place where she felt most at home. When she had been a kid, living with her parents, before they had found out about her abilities there had been a lake near her house and everyday during the holidays she would go there, to sit, to read, to draw, simply to relax. She had loved it there and water seemed to calm her more than anything else. And she figured that Shalimar probably wasn't the person to be around at that moment in time.   
  
'Trying to calm yourself down.' The question floated down from the dojo. Lexa hadn't seen Shalimar sitting there and she looked up, wondering how the feral always seemed to find her and how she always seemed to know what was going through Lexa's head.   
  
'I did the same thing before my first mission,' Shalimar continued as Lexa sat down by the edge of the water. 'I was freaked by everything that was going on and there was nobody else I could talk to about any of it. Jesse went through the same thing when he first turned up and I'm sure that Brennan and Emma did too.'  
  
'How did you get round the nerves,' Lexa asked.  
  
'I don't remember, and even if I did it probably wouldn't help you. We all get over the freakiness in our own way.'  
  
'How do you do this? All the time, facing the possibility that you'll lose everything, everyone that means anything to you?'  
  
Shalimar looked down at the water and the reflection of the moon that it held, flickering on its surface. She didn't know. For the past month she had been in some state of shock and had been carrying on as normal, trying to get through everyday without even the slightest hint that it would get better. And now she was doing it because she had to, she had been telling the truth when she had told Adam that she couldn't lose them. But after that... She had no idea what she was going to do, whether she was going to leave Mutant X and Sanctuary or whether she was going to stick it out, work through the pain. She would confront that decision when she had to.  
  
  
  
'We should probably get ready for the mission.'  
  
'You didn't answer my question.'  
  
'You noticed that too huh?' 


	8. Chapter 8

Hello everybody. Thanks as always for the reviews(broken record much?). Please keep them coming. This is the first half of the rescue attempt. I'm gonna finish it off in the next chapter.   
  
Two requests: 1. Any suggestions for the ending... and 2. If anyone knows when Mutant X is back on tv in England could they let me know. I always manage to miss the first couple of episodes of every season and really don't wanna do that this time round.   
  
Have a nice day.   
  
***  
  
The car door slammed and Lexa looked around her for any sign of life. Finding none she opened the back door of the car and grabbed her jacket. She locked the car and waited for instructions from above.  
  
'Can you hear me?' came Shalimar's voice over the com-link. Adam had made her one for the mission and she had been duly honoured. It had actually been a pretty cool moment. Adam had presented it to her right before they left and she had slipped it on her finger and had even gotten a sincere smile from Shalimar. The beam of light that wrapped itself around the ring glowed for a split second and then it was gone, leaving behind her own individual markings.   
  
'Yeah,' Lexa replied.  
  
'Okay, you see the skyscraper.'  
  
Lexa looked around her and saw the building. It was tall and imposing, just like any skyscraper should be but it seemed different, much more intimidating. But then traffic lights were intimidating her at that point. She didn't ever remember a time when she had been so freaked out and nervous.   
  
'You need to walk towards it.'  
  
'That's the building Genomex is in,' she said incredulously.   
  
'No, Genomex is behind it. And when you get closer to the actual premises you might wanna be a little more subtle about the whole speaking into your finger thing.'  
  
Lexa hadn't even realized she had been doing it. She wasn't too sure what to do about the whole com-link thing. She had no idea whether it was necessary for her to hold her finger up to her mouth or whether the sound would carry if her hand was down by her side.   
  
As if knowing what she was thinking all over again Shalimar spoke. 'They are very receptive to sound. You could have your hand severed and stuck in a lead box and I would still be able to hear you.'  
  
'Could we please not talk about severed hands, please?' Lexa grimaced at the thought. She started walking towards the skyscraper. Once she was past it she looked across the street to the next building. It was three storeys high, made completely of concrete with a couple of windows dotted here and there to make it fit in a little better.   
  
'That's the one,' Shalimar said. She could see Lexa standing, staring at the building. She felt helpless in the Helix. She couldn't just land and wait for Lexa to get the others out. Her legs were tingling like she was getting over cramp but she wasn't, it was just restlessness. It was all so frustrating, simply being able to watch.  
  
'Anytime...' she said quietly. She understood what Lexa was going through but the mission was not gonna get completed with her just standing there.  
  
Lexa reached in her pocket for the ID card. Adam had replaced the picture with one of her just in case anybody inside wanted to check it out. She walked across the street and up to the front door. Through the glass she could see a long corridor leading off into the distance. There was no one around but she wasn't relying on that to be the case forever.   
  
She lifted her arm and placed the card in the swipe machine. She slid it through and then, with a click the door opened in front of her. She walked through, wondering, not for the first or last time why she was doing this.  
  
Shalimar took one last look at the building and turned the Helix round with a sigh.  
  
***  
  
Brennan hadn't seen anyone for atleast an hour. Or atleast he thought it had been an hour. He had lost all track of time, and everything seemed blurred into everything else. He wished he was a little more with it so he could try and think of some way of getting out of the solid metal chair he was trapped in. But his thoughts kept on straying. Mostly to Shalimar. He wondered how she was doing with just Adam and Lexa. He wasn't sorry to have left them together in the first place, Shalimar really needed to deal with...stuff. But even he had to admit that maybe it had been a little too long. She might have actually killed them by now. And that would probably not be the best way of trying to keep Mutant X on track.   
  
He could picture her in his head; making her much needed cup of coffee in the morning, tapping away at a computer keyboard till late at night, sneaking off when she thought nobody was watching her in the early morning to prowl for a couple of hours before daylight. He had always known that she was amazing but he had never admitted it before to anyone. Atleast not in a genuine manner. He adored everything about Shalimar. The way she twisted her hair up on top of her head when she was trying to concentrate but always managed to miss a couple of strands which would hang down the back of her neck. He loved that when she was sparring she seemed to be listening to a song in her mind. It was like the beat was what kept her going, it gave her renewed energy when she was running down, which, granted hardly ever happened. He loved the way that her room was a complete mess and that she seemed incapable of being tidy but that whenever she woke up in the morning she always looked perfect. He had to admit, he was completely in love with Shalimar. He was pretty sure that Emma had guessed, she must have being a telempath. He wasn't quite so sure about Jesse and definitely had no clue about Adam. But then Adam had always been somewhat of a closed book for Brennan. He could never really figure him out. But he had never realized quite how much he relied on him until he hadn't been there any more. And then he had turned up one day with the new girl. At that point Brennan was finding it hard to remember her name. And her image was running into Emma's like watercolours on paper. He could no longer distinguish one from the other and with that his head dropped to his chest and he was out cold.   
  
***  
  
Jesse looked around him. As opposed to Brennan he was completely awake. It was not an advantage that he was very pleased with. He had been trying his restraints for half an hour with no success. He looked down at his wrists. They were rubbed red and spots of blood had appeared that were gradually absorbing into the sleeves of his top. His back and head were aching from the pressure of the subdermal governor. The pain had been so intense, so powerful and it had slowly become duller. He hadn't seen another soul for a while and was beginning to wonder if the GSA hadn't just left him there to starve and die that way.   
  
At the sound of shoes clipping on the floor Jesse's head turned. He couldn't see anything but suddenly a figure came into view to the left of him. She looked scared and he instantly recognized her as Lexa, the woman that Adam had brought with him to Sanctuary. When he had first seen her he had thought she was extremely good looking. Her hair was dark and sleek and her eyes were a piercing blue. She had looked nervous then but now looked positively petrified. He knew it was probably the wrong time to think about that kind of thing but petrified wasn't a bad look for her.   
  
The door slid open and she stepped forward, continuing to look around her just in case a whole army of GSAgents came rushing round the corner.   
  
'You remember who I am?' she asked quietly.  
  
'Yeah,' Jesse replied breathlessly. He hadn't realized before quite how badly his ribs had been hurt. The people that worked for Mason Eckhart had never been the most patient in the world and when they got bored of subdermal governors they would resort to punching him for a while. He had no idea which he preferred, both methods had taken their toll on his body.   
  
Lexa stepped round to the back of the chair and pulled the levers which undid the clasps. Jesse slowly tested out his limbs, making sure that they were all still in working order. He saw Lexa watching him with concern and smiled to reassure her.   
  
'We have to get Brennan out too,' she said.  
  
He nodded and walked over to the wall. As soon as he had stood up he had recognized the head of Brennan over the top of the chair in the next room. He placed his hand against the glass and, with difficulty drew in a breath, phasing the wall in the process. He motioned for Lexa to walk through, having forgotten for a moment that she had never seen him use his abilities before. He followed.   
  
***  
  
Shalimar clicked her knuckles as she paced the length of the Helix. She couldn't seem to sit still for ten seconds at a time. She was restless, she wanted a part of the action and she was nervous. She wanted to see Brennan and Jesse's faces...preferably attached to their bodies.   
  
She had landed exactly where Adam had told her to, on the roof of a multistorey parking lot. It was the building next to the Genomex site but she still felt too detached from the action. She wanted to be able to know everything that was going on inside there so she could control it somehow. She felt so completely useless just sitting around doing nothing to help. The fact that she hadn't heard anything from Lexa yet wasn't helping her feel more secure.   
  
She sat down heavily and almost instantly got up again with a growl of frustration. 


	9. Chapter 9

I give you the escape chapter...finally. Its been a while coming but this is it...well not quite. I still have to actually get those crazy new mutants outta the building. Fun, fun, fun.   
  
Thanks for the reviews. Nice to know that some of you people are actually reading this stuff. Please continue to review (Brennan Mulwray...I have reviewed your story but not in the little box provided cos my computers being uber retarded...sorry bout that).   
  
Have a nice day.   
  
***  
  
'Brennan,' Jesse tried again. He had been attempting to wake Brennan up for atleast five minutes and the amount of time they had left before they had to move was decreasing rapidly.   
  
Lexa was keeping an eye out for any GSAgents but she was growing more nervous by the second. This was a whole new situation and she wasn't entirely sure how to deal with it. She felt more secure now that she knew that Jesse atleast would watch her back. But she just wanted to go back to Sanctuary. Being the reluctant hero wasn't her thing...she didn't want to be a hero, reluctant or otherwise.   
  
Brennan's eyes shot open. He had been wrapped up in his own little world of blackness and had suddenly juddered to life with the aid of Jesse, who had resorted to shaking Brennan. He looked around him before remembering where he was and what he was doing there. He lifted up his arms to make certain that he really was free.   
  
'You alright?' Jesse asked.   
  
'Yeah,' Brennan replied slowly, still trying to make sure that he was.   
  
'We have to get out of here,' Lexa said quietly as she walked away from the glass walls. 'There's five agents walking down the corridor towards us.'  
  
***  
  
Shalimar opened the door of the Helix after making sure that there was no one around. She looked up at the moon, still shining down on the world. She felt so much more alive at night, mostly due to her feline genes. It was like her body was in standby during the day; it could function perfectly well, and she could do exactly the same things she could do at night. The difference wasn't noticeable to anyone else, but she felt it. Her skin grew tingly and she became so much more restless. Like she had once told Brennan, she didn't quite know what was going on with her body or her mind but she couldn't just ignore it, she wouldn't.   
  
But at that moment her feline genes were not helping her any. She wanted to hunt and fight. She wanted to stalk her prey and then leap onto it before it had a chance to react. She wanted to be able to relish the chase. She did not just want to be standing on a rooftop mere feet away from the action.   
  
Shalimar walked towards the edge of the roof and leant her forearms against the railing. It was cold and it permeated through her leather jacket. She looked across at the building of the same height. She, at that moment more than any fully comprehended the meaning of the saying 'so near and yet so far'.  
  
***  
  
Adam looked at the screen in front of him. It had four different shots from four different security cameras in the Genomex complex. He had already set the loop and was feeding it to Genomex but on his monitors he could see what was really going on. Brennan had just stood up, Jesse was standing in front of him and Lexa had just walked closer to the pair. Adam looked across to one of the other shots as he sighed with relief, but the sigh was caught in his throat as he saw five agents walking towards the room. He raised the hand with his comlink towards his lips and was just about to start talking when he looked to the shot of Brennan's room and saw that all three had disappeared.   
  
***  
  
Lexa walked towards Brennan and Jesse and, lifting her arms to eye level worked her particular breed of magic. Her ability to manipulate light had always seemed pretty cool to her but in terms of new mutants there were others a lot more powerful than her. She figured that next to people like Brennan and Shalimar her abilities were a little superfluous. And now she was getting an opportunity to show off a little, to use her abilities for something other than shoplifting (out of necessity) and capturing other new mutants for Genomex, something she had never been comfortable with.   
  
Jesse looked up as he saw the light flash around him. He could still see Lexa and Brennan and had no idea what she had done. He hadn't had time to check out her mutant ability and this was a whole new thing for him.   
  
'Don't make a sound,' Lexa warned in a tone that was less than a whisper. She looked towards the door and saw the GSAgents walking through it. She knew as well as anyone that as soon as they saw that Brennan was gone the alarm would be sounded.   
  
'They're predictable,' she whispered to Jesse as the Agents ran out of the room, tasers ready to fry anything that got in their way. He and Brennan smirked in reply as they started walking out of the room. Lexa kept up the shields and they managed to avoid two agents who came running down the hallway. It was a feat and a half trying to make sure that no one felt their presence, especially since there were three of them. Lexa was able to manipulate light to cover herself from the outside world but three, two of them taller and bigger than her was something she had never done before.   
  
Their feet moved almost silently, Lexa's heels occasionally snapping against the polished floor, but amongst all the noise of the alarms and the shouts of the panicky agents it wasn't noticeable. The three moved quietly closer to one of the walls as an agent went careening past. But his foot had caught in amongst Lexa's and as he fell so did she. Her concentration lost she knew exactly what was coming. They had been caught.  
  
***  
  
Shalimar heard the alarms as soon as they went off. She had been standing on the edge of the building watching for any sign of Lexa with or without Brennan and Jesse but as soon as her signal came she lifted her leg up onto the railing and leaped.   
  
She felt the air sweep through her hair and then the impact of the roof of the Genomex building. She bent her knees and felt it push through her body right up to the top of her head. She flicked her hair out of her eyes and walked towards the door into the building. Glancing around her she pulled open the door quietly and looked into the stairwell beyond. Overhead lights lit up the darkness and she stepped in, making sure to leave the door open in case it was their only way of escape.   
  
She made her way down the stairs. The whining of the alarm got closer and louder as she moved further into the building. She reached the bottom of the concrete staircase and looked to either side. Seeing no one she stood, trying to focus herself on the scents and sounds. She had to try and locate the source of all the action and chaos because through finding that she was pretty sure she would find Brennan, Jesse and Lexa. She allowed her eyelids to close and breathed deeply, attempting to block out the wailing sound of the alarm. As she gradually faded it out she managed to focus more on the sound of shouts, scuffles. She opened her eyes as soon as she had determined where the noise was coming from and turned left.   
  
***  
  
Jesse looked up and saw a ring of agents, atleast ten of them standing around himself, Brennan and Lexa. He made a move but was instantly hit in the head. He felt the impact and closed his eyes trying to focus a little more on what they were all going to do to get out of there.   
  
Brennan glared at the agents. Having seen what had happened to Jesse he stayed perfectly still, waiting, like a snake in the grass for the opportune moment at which to move. He didn't know when that would come but he really hoped it wouldn't be too long.   
  
Lexa felt like such a failure. She had let the team down. And now she knew that if she didn't get killed in Genomex Shalimar would most certainly hunt her down and take her out. She didn't know which was more appealing but she would rather not find out.   
  
Suddenly there was a flurry of movement outside of the circle. Two of the agents moved from where they had been standing. They turned to face in the opposite direction to the fallen group. Brennan sat up a little to try and get a better view of what was coming but before he could get high enough he was jabbed with a taser. He felt the electricity running through his nerve endings straight along his spinal chord to his brain. He let out a cry of pain and slumped a little lower to the floor, due to the pain and the sudden desire to not be in the firing line.   
  
***  
  
Hearing Brennan's cry Shalimar stepped forward and jammed her leg into the stomach of one of the agents facing her. She hadn't expected a welcoming committee but she was itching for a fight so it definitely wasn't a problem. She bent over to avoid a taser that came flying at her head and then flipped herself over backwards, hitting the second agent in the head with her foot. She landed lightly, gracefully and surveyed the damage in front of her. The first agent stood up ready to go again and she exchanged a few blows with him before sweeping him off his feet with her left leg. He landed hard and she winced at the smack his head made as it struck the floor.  
  
She stood back and watched as the seven remaining agents turned from their prey and began to close around her. 


	10. Chapter 10

Here is the newest chapter, I hope you all enjoy reading. There's not much action, a bit of a backstory as to why Adam recruited everyone. Next chapter the real escape. I know I keep on saying that but I always intend to and then think of something else that needs to be said...mental note to self: must stop promising things that are not necessarily gonna happen.   
  
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy. If you do, review, if you don't, still review, I wanna hear exactly what it is that I'm doing wrong.   
  
Have a nice day.   
  
***   
  
The alarm was piercing and Shalimar could barely hold one thought in her head for more than a second before it was dashed out and she was forced to forget it. She looked around her, not with fear but with complete and utter disdain for the people surrounding her. She had never really respected the GSAgents. She couldn't quite understand how they could do the things they did...killing new mutants for money. There were no moral sensibilities involved and it baffled her somewhat. Cold blooded killing had never really done it for her.   
  
Brennan watched Shalimar. She was sizing up the competition and although she and everyone else in the room including the GSAgents knew she could take them all without even having to use her brain, she liked to make it a sort of art form. She always made fighting look so graceful, almost balletic. It was partly a feral thing but he knew she liked being able to jump higher, run faster, fight harder than most people. It made her, like most new mutants feel a little bit special.   
  
The agents moved closer around her, their tasers flashing electricity. Shalimar watched the sparks flying and worked out the moves she could make. She sensed the two guys behind her. They had worked their way round and she could see them through the metaphorical eyes in the back of her head. Her human eyes changed to the golden feline ones and she turned around quickly, her leg smashing into one of the GSAgents head. He flew backwards and everyone looked on as time seemed to stand still. As soon as he hit the floor time sped up and everyone was moving. Jesse was up in a second and he took on two agents leaving Shalimar with the remaining four and Lexa to help Brennan who was more hurt than he was prepared to admit.   
  
***  
  
Adam watched on as the team worked together to take down the bad guys. He had missed watching them work. They were such an integrated team that it was like they could predict each other's every move. Without saying a word to each other they could take down ten agents in one go. It had taken him a lot of time to find the perfect members for Mutant X. He had known that he would need one of each group, feral; elemental; psionic; molecular. But there was more to it than that.   
  
When he had first found Shalimar she had been scared, confused, unable to cope with all the crap that was going on in her life. However, once he had given her a decent meal, a bed to sleep in and a reason to carry on she had improved no end. She was strong, protective, something he had initially been more than a little worried about. Looking out for her friends no matter what was something that made her who she was but it could have so easily turned against her. She could have gotten herself into more trouble because of it. But she was still with him and he had come to realize how much her protective attitude added to the team.   
  
Then Jesse had turned up. He had been unhappy in his home life, had dealt more with computers than humans. He was insecure about his gift, or as he saw it his curse. Jesse was not nearly as strong as Shalimar but Adam had seen serious potential in the boy. And over time Shalimar, and the necessity of talking to other people had forced him to deal with his fears of rejection. Adam had continually forced Jesse into certain situations, like re-stocking the safehouses just so he wouldn't sit in the lab all day and play around in the world of cyber space. Jesse had been drawn out of himself and he had become the person Adam had always known he would be.   
  
And then Brennan and Emma had shown up. Emma deLauro was someone Adam had researched for quite some time, just like he had with Shalimar and Jesse. She had been chosen out of so many others because of her mutant abilities but Adam had had to meet her to make a real decision. Her abilities were powerful when he first met her, not controlled enough to be much of an asset but he knew that that would take time and practice. But Emma's gifts were aided by her ability to feel. It wasn't a psionic thing, she was just an incredibly compassionate person and Adam had seen in her an ability to help others even without her mutant powers.   
  
Brennan had been somewhat of a blip though. He was someone who had never even appeared on Adam's radar until the team had had to help him. Adam knew there were mutants who used their gifts to help themselves, there always had been, most of them working for the GSA. Adam had never approved of the waste and so when first meeting Brennan on the Skyway had disregarded him as someone they had to help and could then place in the underground. But after seeing how Brennan worked under pressure, how sure of his powers he was and how much he needed someone to trust him and instill their faith in him for just once in his life, Adam made a spontaneous decision. Brennan Mulwray was the fourth member of Mutant X.   
  
Adam had never regretted his decisions about the members of the team. They had to live and work together, something that could have so quickly become a problem but they became closer and Adam watched them become more and more like a family.   
  
The loss of Emma had put a huge obstacle in the way of Mutant X. They had all drawn away from each other, into themselves. They had stopped being a coherent unit and started becoming more like individuals, colleagues. That was something he had never wanted to happen. So he had brought Lexa into the fold, hoping that she would unite them again. Maybe it had been a misguided attempt to bring back what was lost but Adam had needed to do something and it seemed now to be paying off.   
  
***  
  
Lexa watched as Shalimar bent her knees and jumped off the ground. She seemed to float for a minute before landing her foot into the jaw of the second GSAgent she had taken down in as many minutes. She landed and punched the third to the floor. Lexa's mouth opened to try and warn Shalimar but it was too late.   
  
The taser slammed into her back and she fell to the floor with a yell. The blue light still flashed across her spine at random intervals and Shalimar's eyes flashed on and off due to the pain. She rolled over onto her back, wanting to atleast see what was coming before it hit her. The Agent advanced and she backed away slowly before collapsing onto the floor. The taser had taken a hell of a lot out of her and she was finding it hard to breathe due to the force the agent had used.   
  
Suddenly the agent was engulfed in blue sparks. He stood unable to move while the electricity still had him in its grasp and then dropped to the floor, occasionally convulsing. Shalimar lifted her head off the ground and saw Brennan, in pain but glad she was still alive. She smiled weakly before letting her head drop to the floor. 


	11. Chapter 11

Well, here it is, the last chapter. I hope you all enjoyed reading and please review cos I wanna know that people liked it. Thanks to all my faithful reviewers thus far (Lornein, Brennan Mulwray, Fiery feral, Laily, Thir13en ghosts, Carrot6, Redhead2, Coca, LucyGoosey, Peepeeteepee, Meg and Jill) you all rock and I'm currently working on a new Mutant X story, this time a different version of the first episode so look out for it if you liked this one.  
  
Have a nice day.   
  
***  
  
'Shalimar? Shalimar?' The voice broke into her subconscious. She wrinkled her forehead and opened her eyes. As the world came into focus she saw Jesse standing over her, his sandy blonde hair flopping over his eyes.   
  
'Hey, you back with us?' he said with a smile.  
  
'Yeah,' she replied, her voice croaky. She held out her hand and Jesse took it and pulled her up to stand in front of him. 'How long was I out for?' she asked, slightly ashamed that she had even lost consciousness in the first place. She hadn't been hit that hard.  
  
'Ten seconds at most.'  
  
She looked straight into his eyes and smirked. 'Liar.'  
  
'You guys mind if we get out of here yet?' Lexa's desperate voice floated towards them. They both looked at her and Brennan and they rushed forwards to help him.   
  
'You okay to walk?' Shalimar asked.  
  
He nodded and stood up. He groaned as he was hit with head rush and he felt Shalimar's arm circle his waist as she supported his weight. He looked down at the blonde head and breathed out, suprised at how natural being that close to her was. He was always suprised by his reaction to her proximity to him. Whenever they sparred he felt exhilarated by her presence and whenever they were sitting next to each other, watching a movie or just...sitting he couldn't stop his eyes from wandering over to her and taking in every curve of her body, every inch of her face.   
  
Lexa watched the couple as they supported each other. She had never seen two people so in love and yet so far apart. It was like there was an invisible barrier between them and it wasn't that they couldn't penetrate it, neither of them wanted to try. She didn't need to be a psionic to read their minds.   
  
Jesse looked around him. He was nervous about the whole thing. They had been captured once already that day and he didn't want to risk another run-in with the GSA especially since he, Brennan and Shalimar were hurt. They weren't ready to take on another group of agents. He walked to the other side of Brennan and lifted his arm over his shoulder. He wanted to hurry the whole situation up. He wanted to leave the GSA building and never come back to it unless it was to burn the place down to the ground. Anger bubbled up inside him as he thought back to what Emma had looked like before the paramedics had covered her up and taken her away. Everyone always seemed to assume that he was the calm, rational one of the group, that he would never lose control with regard to his emotions. And Jesse had learnt how to deal with his anger, with the rage that had initially wanted to consume him. But that did not mean that he didn't want to pummel Eckhart and every GSAgent that got in his way, and despite his emotions towards Shalimar, Nicholas Fox as well. He had contributed to the outcome of that fateful couple of days and Jesse couldn't bear that he was related to one of the only people Jesse referred to as family.   
  
Lexa looked over Jesse's shoulder and saw the doors opening at the end of the corridor, revealing a group of atleast ten agents.   
  
'Guys, we have to leave now.'  
  
They all started making their way towards the front door and freedom. The agents footsteps pounded down the hallway towards them and just as they seemed to be right on the teams heels Lexa turned around and drew her hands together, creating a blinding flash of light. The agents staggered backwards and the team turned, their efforts renewed. Jesse and Shalimar reached the front door first but it was, predictably locked. Jesse rested his free hand against it and the door phased silently. Lexa went through first, now more used to Jesse's abilities than she had been. The rest followed and they were finally all out in the open air.   
  
***  
  
Shalimar leant back against the pilots chair of the Helix and breathed deeply. She hadn't been through an experience like that since the last time they had all seen Emma. And she had, without even knowing missed it all. The tight situations which made her heart rise into her throat, the times when it seemed like there was no way out and that it was the end were just one of the many things she had enjoyed about being a part of Mutant X but her feral nature made her relish them even more. For the past month she had been on some kind of auto pilot, not paying attention to what she had been doing. It had been like she wasn't in her body anymore, like she had exited herself and left her body to get on with the everyday stuff just so she didn't have to deal with anything.   
  
But in that moment when she had seen the GSAgents walking towards her she had come back to life. Every move she had executed had made her feel more and more like herself.   
  
Brennan watched Shalimar. She had her eyes closed and was breathing deeply like she was meditating or something. She looked exhausted but he wasn't suprised, they were all out of practice. But she looked happy, which was something he hadn't seen in a long time.   
  
She looked across at him and smiled.   
  
'You wanna get us out of here or should I?'  
  
Brennan smirked as he waved his hand signaling for her to take complete control of the Helix.   
  
'Go ahead.'  
  
***  
  
Adam looked across at the team. Lexa had gone to get some air, having been understandably freaked out by the events of the past couple of days. The team were in the lab with him and he could see how angry they all still were.   
  
'You'll be fine,' he told Brennan as the scan finished and the results were shown on the screen. Adam didn't have any idea what to say. He had never been the type to get lost for words but he had no idea what he could say to them to make everything better.   
  
'I'm sorry I left...' he began, hoping that once he started the sentences would form themselves.  
  
'Adam,' Jesse said. 'We get why you left,' he said, an edge to his voice that Adam recognized from when Jesse had been dealing with his father. He knew when he came back that it wouldn't be easy for them to accept why he had left but he had hoped that it would be a little easier than it was turning out to be.   
  
'You can't expect everything to go back to the way it was before you left,' Brennan said.   
  
He smiled as he realized that they were accepting him back into the team. He had simply been hoping that they wouldn't beat the crap out of him but yet again he had underestimated them. They were so much stronger than he was. He looked across at Shalimar. She had been avoiding his gaze up till that point but she raised her eyes to meet his. Her look told him that though he was forgiven she would never forget that he had left her when she most needed his help.   
  
***  
  
Lexa rested her chin on her hand. She was tired, too tired to move, too tired to speak, too tired even to return the smile that Adam had thrown at her as he dragged the rest into the lab. He was checking them over for any major injuries and she was glad she had the chance to escape for a little while.   
  
She had never used her abilities in that kind of situation before, where life or death really was an option. Her abilities had always been this ambiguous force that she knew she had but wasn't quite sure how to harness. It wasn't that she didn't know how to use her powers, she just wasn't sure for what kind of purpose. And now she had one.  
  
But she had no idea for how long. Shalimar still wanted her out of Sanctuary as soon as possible, of that Lexa was pretty sure. The feral had impressed and scared her with her ability to kick ass without so much as a frown. If Shalimar wanted her out of there then Lexa was not gonna be the one to argue.   
  
She didn't think she knew Brennan well enough to make that kind of judgment about him. She wasn't sure how to read him, he seemed to hide his real emotions beneath a facade of masculine strength and she assumed he only ever opened up to a few truly close people.   
  
Jesse was the only one of the group who she knew didn't hate her. He was nice, and she could definitely see herself being some kind of friend towards him. But she understood where his loyalties were.   
  
She resigned herself to the idea that she was leaving. It wasn't such a bad thing. She had some friends...not very many and none of them that close but they were still friends. She had an apartment; it was spacious and she really didn't mind cockroaches that much. And a job, one that she was good at. So what if it was boring?  
  
'My life sucks,' she said under her breath.  
  
'Oh come on,' came Shalimar's voice from behind her. 'It can't be that bad.'  
  
'You really have to stop sneaking up on people,' Lexa said earnestly.   
  
Shalimar smiled as she walked towards where Lexa was sitting. She lowered herself to the ground, clearly still hurting from the mission.   
  
'Its not that I don't like you,' Shalimar said after a pause. 'I don't know you.'  
  
'So its not me, its you.'  
  
'Something like that. When Emma died we didn't just lose a teammate, we lost a friend, a sister. So if Brennan had been the one who showed up a month after that I wouldn't have trusted him either.'  
  
Lexa looked across at Shalimar. She could never know how hard it was for Shalimar to admit all this, or how difficult and heartbreaking it had been when Emma had died. But she was glad that the feral was finally coming round to the idea that she wasn't the enemy.   
  
'I'm not promising you an easy time. You might go the way of Emma. But I'm offering you a chance for a new start.'  
  
'You're offering me a job,' Lexa asked the suprise evident on her face.  
  
Shalimar laughed at the look. 'Yeah, and a home, and hopefully a less sucky life.'  
  
'Thank you,' Lexa said, the genuine happiness something that she hadn't felt in a long time.   
  
'We don't have a room for you yet,' Shalimar continued. The whole team had debated the idea of giving Lexa Emma's old room, but it was too much, too soon. 'We'll have one of the spare rooms cleaned out for you by tomorrow but tonight its the sofa.'  
  
Lexa laughed, knowing how much all the gestures were costing Shalimar. Shalimar smiled in reply before pushing herself off the steps and walking in the direction of her room.   
  
***  
  
Brennan looked up at the sound of Shalimar's door sliding open. He had been hanging around outside her room trying to work out whether he should talk to her or not. He knew she had taken everything pretty hard and he had probably not made matters any better leaving her alone for such a long amount of time with Lexa and Adam.   
  
He turned around as he heard a slight sound and came face to face with the woman he was so scared of confronting. She was leant against the door frame of her room with her eyebrows raised.   
  
'Was there any reason why you've been dancing around in front of my room for the past half an hour?'  
  
'Avoidance tactics,' he said with a smile. 'You mind if I come in?'  
  
She stepped back into her room and he followed. Shalimar made her way towards her bed and dropped down onto it. Brennan looked around for a seat which didn't have a huge pile of clothes on but when he found none he decided to sit on the edge of the bed.   
  
'I owe you an apology. I thought I knew best, leaving you with Lexa and Adam. I thought that if you were forced into it you would deal with stuff. I was wrong.'  
  
'Yeah, well I'm pretty sure we're even. You put me in an awkward position and then you saved my life. So we're square,' she said.   
  
'Okay,' Brennan replied. He nodded slightly, stood and started walking towards the door. He turned around to say good night but saw tears rolling down Shalimar's cheeks.   
  
'What's wrong? Why are you crying?' he said as he walked back towards the bed and sat down next to her. He brushed the tears off her skin with his hand and lifted her face till she was looking at him.  
  
'I miss her,' Shalimar managed to get out. She was ashamed that she had fallen apart in front of someone. She had been doing such a good job of keeping her feelings inside but she had finally been worn down to the point where she couldn't hide her emotions any longer.   
  
'I know, we all do,' said Brennan as he wrapped his arms around her slim frame.   
  
'And I just keep on thinking about how if I hadn't gone to see Nicholas none of this...' but she was cut off by Brennan grabbing her shoulders and looking deep into her eyes.   
  
'Shal, you cannot blame yourself for this. None of it was your fault. You didn't wanna see Nicholas and we all convinced you to go against your instincts.'  
  
'You can't blame yourself, Brennan.'  
  
'I'm not, that's the point.' He pulled Shalimar back into his arms and felt her relax into him, her head under his chin.   
  
'Emma would be so proud of you.'  
  
***  
  
The door slid open and light shone out onto the hallway floor. It quickly disappeared again as she shut the door behind her. She made her way silently down the hallway, holding her boots in one hand, her jacket in the other and the keys to the Lexus in her back pocket. She walked through the main area of Sanctuary and glanced at Lexa, sleeping, peacefully unaware that anything was going on around her. Both she and Adam had been there for two nights and although Lexa didn't have her own bed (the spare room was taking a lot longer to clear out than anybody had first thought) she seemed to have settled in well. She was probably just too tired to worry about where she was sleeping.   
  
Shalimar carried on to the garage and made her way straight towards the car. She opened the front door and climbed in. She stuck the key in the ignition and fired it up, hoping that nobody could hear.   
  
She drove the car out onto the empty road. She loved driving at that time of the night. At 1 in the morning not many people chose to travel anywhere, but Shalimar was a creature of the night and she had somewhere to be. She wound down the window hoping to try and relieve some of the stale air that had built up in the car. She felt it sweep through her hair and heard the landscape whistling past as she sped along the road, paying no attention to any driving laws.   
  
***  
  
Half an hour later she pulled up outside a house in the suburbs just a few miles from the nearest city. She pushed the door open and walked up the driveway towards the front door. She lifted her hand to knock but before she could bring her knuckles into contact with the wood the door opened in front of her. She blinked from the sudden and slightly unexpected light.   
  
'Hello.'  
  
She looked up towards the source of the voice.  
  
'Hi,' she replied.   
  
'You coming in?'  
  
'Yeah, but I haven't got very long.'  
  
She walked past the figure into the house. Nicholas looked up and down the street before closing the door behind them. 


End file.
